I want to thank you for being relentless in your commitment to the Lord's will at Risen City. This word "relentless" is a useful word. It describes our pursuit of God but even more it describes God's treatment of us. Here's why I say this...
The dictionary will tell us a range of meanings for this word "relentless." First, the meaning could be thought of positively as in "unrelenting, steady, persistent, and unremitting." Second, the meaning could be generally negative such as "unmoved by appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; and unpitying."
These two general meanings of "relentless" are necessary in the world. Our laws, judges, police, military and security forces; our business ventures, our marriages and parenting all require relentlessness in one way or another. Since being pushed from the womb, all of life requires a relentless effort.
Why would our involvement as the church not require the same "relentlessness?" Doesn't even God's nature reflect relentlessness?
Think about how God himself describes his character in Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
God describes himself as unrelenting in his love, grace and mercy, but unpitying in his not clearing the guilty. How can he be both of these especially if ALL people are guilty?
Well, the answer is that he placed the guilt and penalty for the sins of His elect on Jesus. In this way God's unpitying wrath was taken out on sin. You could say that God's steady, persistent, unrelenting love is applied to elect sinners precisely because the cross Jesus bore was destitute of tenderness and infinitely and grossly unpitying. God's just wrath remains on those whom he chooses not to put his mercy. God said, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy."
What does this mean for Risen City?
We are praying and fasting as a congregation this first month of 2022 in order that we may see the character of God more clearly. Does anyone else think and pray to God, "YOU MUST DO THIS...I CAN'T?" We need to see his relentless grace. This grace is not something we can whip up, arouse, or produce. Grace is certainly not deserved (by definition). We are a church fixed on preaching the gospel and that only the gospel will make a difference only by God's grace. Therefore we know this:
"The gospel triumphs not through human effort but through God’s relentless grace."
I would like to propose this as our rally cry in 2022. May God cause the gospel triumph not through our human efforts but through his relentless grace! Thank you for partnering in this effort! Let us continue to pray and work knowing that only God's relentless grace can do it...he will surely do it! (1 Thessalonians 5:24) This is how God will be glorified in our church.
In God's Relentless Grace,
PASTOR MIKE
"WE ARE RISEN PEOPLE MAKING DISCIPLES IN CHRIST TOGETHER"
